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2 NParks heritage trees in Singapore: Found in Pulau Ubin, near Chek Jawa, from House No. 1 on the left; Found in Pulau Ubin, near Chek Jawa, from House No. 1 on the right
Sonneratia alba is a large mangrove tree of tidal coasts and creeks, growing up to 40 m tall with white flowers. It is a coastal species, not a typical garden plant, and grows best in saline, muddy tidal conditions.
Sonneratia alba is a mangrove tree in the family Lythraceae. The specific epithet alba is from the Latin meaning 'white', referring to the flowers.
S. alba grows naturally in many tropical and subtropical areas from East Africa to the Indian subcontinent, southern China, the Ryukyu Islands, Indochina, Malesia, Papuasia, Australia, and the Western Pacific region. Its habitat is sheltered, sandy seashores and tidal creeks.
In Borneo, S. alba is used as firewood. In Sulawesi, the wood is used in the construction of houses and ships. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the sour fruits are used to flavor fish, and are sometimes eaten raw. The leaves are also eaten raw or cooked.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sonneratia alba by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
